Steve Cooper
Steve Cooper (born 10 December 1979) is a Welsh youth coach who has worked as a coach for the Liverpool Academy. He initially joined Liverpool in October 2008 as the development coach for the Under 12-Under 16 sides, however he was promoted to the role of Academy Manager as part of a wider restructuring of the Academy in May 2011. As Academy Manager, his primary focus was on the general operation of the Academy at Kirkby, however he was still involved in more traditional coaching roles at the Academy and made the move to Under 18s coach following the promotion of Mike Marsh to first team affairs at Melwood in August 2012. He left the club in the summer of 2013. Under 12s-16s coach In October 2008, Cooper was recruited by Liverpool from Wrexham after the young Welsh coach's impressive work at the Racecourse over a 12 year period, where he oversaw the development of a number of youth players into first team names. Of his new role at Liverpool, Cooper said "It’s not every day that a club likes Liverpool comes knocking on your door, but I have got a lot of very mixed emotions at the moment. I am delighted, these things don’t come along all too often, and when they do it’s almost impossible to turn them down. I’m delighted to be joining Liverpool, but on the other hand I’m very sad to be leaving Wrexham." Cooper remained in his role as development coach with the younger age groups of the Liverpool Academy for three years. Academy manager In May 2011, as part of a wide restructuring of the Liverpool Academy, Cooper was promoted to the position of Liverpool Academy manager by then-first team coach Kenny Dalglish after impressing in his previous role at Kirkby. At the end of the 2010-11 Reserves season, Cooper had also performed well when assisting Pep Segura as the temporary coach of the Liverpool Reserves. He took over the Academy manager role from Frank McParland, who was promoted to the position of Academy director. Of his new role, Cooper stated "I'm very honoured to be in this position and I am well aware of its importance. I will now look after the operational side of things in Kirkby but will always maintain a focus on the football side of it because that is the fundamental part of an Academy. I plan to remain actively involved in the grassroots football at the facility and will continue to work as hard as possible to ensure we have an Academy to be proud of." Under 18s coach When Under 18s coach Mike Marsh was promoted to Melwood in August 2012, Cooper took charge of the Under 18s for their 2012-13 season. His role as Academy Manager was taken on by Academy Director Frank McParland. His season in charge of the U18s was a slightly disappointing one. His side only finished fourth in the First Group Stage of the Premier Academy League, thus missing out on a place in the Elite Group Stage. They instead entered the Qualification Group for the second part of the season, and only managed a fifth-placed finish. They had more success in the FA Youth Cup, with some dominant wins leading them to the semi-finals, but here they were undone by Chelsea 4-1 over two legs. Coaching stats Under 18s Cooper